{"id":31,"date":"2021-01-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eotma.com\/wordpress\/sjs\/2021\/01\/23\/day-24-queenstown-to-te-anau-downs\/"},"modified":"2021-03-10T22:26:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T05:26:31","slug":"day-24-queenstown-to-te-anau-downs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sjs.sputs.com\/wordpress\/2021\/01\/23\/day-24-queenstown-to-te-anau-downs\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 24 Queenstown to Te Anau Downs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

February 10, 2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Map: Day 24<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We got a later start this morning. The room was so nice and comfortable that it was hard to leave. Free continental breakfast was included. I had yogurt and toast with Nutella and jam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heinrich drove back toward Queenstown to stop at the New World supermarket to buy food for dinner for the next two nights. We got our 6 cents per gallon discount gas coupon and drove to the Z station on the outskirts of Queenstown to fill up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took over driving. Our destination was Te Anau Downs (2 hours 10 minutes estimated drive time). The weather was partly cloudy and nice. I intended to stop at a few overlooks of the southern end of Lake Wakatipu, but somehow the Google Maps navigation got stopped and I passed all of them before realizing what had happened. We did stop at the southern tip of the lake to snap a few photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lake Wakatipu Panorama<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I had marked the Mavora Lakes as a possible destination, but they were on a one-hour side trip each way and on a very long dirt road. Since the weather did not look stellar in that direction, we decided to skip it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result we were in Te Anau much sooner than expected. We stopped at the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre where I picked up a few free brochures of the area and bought a T-shirt. We took a walk along the Te Anau lakeshore. It had turned into a nice warm afternoon and still was only partly cloudy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lake Te Anau<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We walked to the Punanga Manu o Te Anau Bird Sanctuary. This was a really interesting place. It is home to injured birds that could not survive in the wild as well as home to endangered species. My favorites were the takah\u0113 and k\u0101k\u0101riki birds. The k\u0101k\u0101riki had beautiful bright green plumage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Takah\u0113 Information Panel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Takah\u0113<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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